“I get back from the gym around 11’ish and I haven’t eaten yet so I make a big plate of some turkey meat loaf or something. I just sit there and watch the last quarter or quarter and a half. I like watching West Coast games, to me it’s more fun to watch than the East Coast games. So it’s perfect timing for me when I get home.

DIRK 2: On having a full-time chef

“I do. Ever since I changed my diet when I was 27 or 28. I don’t eat red meat anymore. At home I go gluten free. On the road that’s hard to do. By myself I’d be pretty miserable. I can’t even fix a pair of eggs.”

DIRK 3: More on food

“My pregame meal has always been pasta. Always. If not I’m rattled. If the hotels on the road don’t have pasta it messes with my mind a little bit. Back in the day if I had to make pasta I could do that, with hot water. But I didn’t know how to make sauce. I just put butter in it.

“I hated grocery shopping. So I never had anything in the house. I had a tough time with it. In Germany the stores close at like 5 PM, but they’re open late here so my first two or three years I would go after games sometimes at like 11 or 11:30.

DIRK 4: On getting away

“I actually got away. I went to the beach for a little bit. I went to the Caribbean for like 10 days. It was good to get some beach time and relax. I did watch some. It’s not like I was watching the playoffs every night, but I did catch some of the West Coast games. I caught Game 7 when Chicago beat Brooklyn in Brooklyn. I thought that was an outstanding game.

“Some of the other games were epic. I thought San Antonio coming back in Game 1 against Golden State was an unbelievable game. There were a couple epic games that I watched. I’m still a fan of the game so I try to catch the games.”

DIRK 5: On Steph Curry

“I’m a huge fan. When he’s on in most of these third quarters I’m just yelling “Shoot! Don’t even pass.” As soon as he passes half court I want him to pull up. The great thing about him is, there’s a lot of great spot up shooters in this league, but he can spot up, take one dribble, two dribbles. To me he is one of the best shooters we have in this league, but also off the dribble. That’s what makes him tough to guard. Not a lot of people can shoot threes off the dribble.

“When I watched Curry in college when he would have scoring nights of 40 and 50, I figured he’d have a chance. If you can shoot like that you have a spot in the league. I didn’t know he’d be this good, but he’s been on a tear. I think his ankles are finally holding up even though he had a little issues the other day, but I just hope he stays healthy for a long time because he’s fun to watch.”

DIRK 6: On campaigning for Paul and Dwight

We’d obviously like to get one of those two. We’d love to get a player in here that can create his own shot and be a superstar-type player. It’s still a long way to go until July. Those guys I’m sure need to clear their minds a little bit and get away and figure out what they want to do with their future. Hopefully that’s where we come in and make a great pitch and see what it happens this summer.

DIRK 7: On his summer involvement

“Yeah, I’ll definitely be a little involved. I’ll be going home for a bit in June, but I told the guys I’d be back for the draft. I’ll be in the draft War Room for the first time this year. That should be exciting. Order some pizza, talk some basketball. After that is free agency and I told Cubes and Donnie if they want me to go anywhere or fly around for a couple days and visit some people I’m more than happy to help. We’d like to quickly turn this thing around and get this franchise back to where it belongs.”

DIRK 8: On his contract as a recruiting point

“Yeah, I have one year on my deal then I’m coming off the books. Obviously if that helps us to be better I’m going to take a pay cut. At that point I’m going to be 36. That’s part of the pitch. Cubes and Donnie have to be part of the pitch who have proven over the years what they can do. I think Dallas and the fans here and the sellout streak and the city to live in has to be in the top five in the league. And if not, then we have to have a Plan B.”

DIRK 9: On Cuban and a Mavs ‘bounce-back’

“It’s a little disappointing that we’re only two years removed from the championship and the first year we barely make the playoffs and the next we’re not even in the playoffs. It’s been a disappointing two years for the Mavs.

“The good thing is that what we always said is it’s easier to turn a team around if you have cap space. There’s a lot of things you can do, you can go for free agents. You can go with the big sign and trade. We could be a lot worse off and be locked into a bunch of contracts. We have the draft and a decent pick with a guy that can step in and help right away.”

“Cuban’s fired up. I’ve been to the gym a couple times working out and I see him in his little box suite going to work already. I think we all know this is a big summer for our team.”

DIRK 10: A look at “Hero” Dirk

DIRK 11: On his “Heroes” game

“I’m very excited. This year’s is taking place on a Saturday. It’s June 29th. On the Friday before we have batting practice in the morning. At night we’ll have a little party, a little fundraiser maybe even a live band. Pimp it out a little bit.”

“Last year we had a great time. A bunch of fans. Some of these fans were sitting out in the sun, it must have been over 100 degrees, but they were out and cheering. Charles (Barkley) played. I was so thankful for everyone that came out.

“It was a lot of fun last year so we obviously said we’d love to do it again this year. I might even let Ben and Skin come out and play again.”

DIRK 12: The Final Word

“We got to be able to make some moves. We want to get back to the playoffs and be a factor. We owe it to these fans.”

Mike Fisher is an award-winning newspaper journalist, the author of two regional best-selling books (with forwards written by Jerry Jones and Troy Aikman), a popular public speaker and a radio-and-TV personality with 20 years of experience...